Arsenal were the biggest spenders in the summer transfer window, but according to Edu, the acquisition of young talented players is all part of Arteta’s rebuilding plans as he wants to develop his new arrivals and build a whole squad of interchangeable stars.
It is obvious that the Arsenal fans have not been overly impressed as they think we have basically spent 150million on mostly reserve players, but Edu urges us all to be patient yet again and wait at least until Arteta has the squad ready to play.
Edu told SkySports: “Yes, I understand the reason because firstly, they have not seen the team playing together yet. That’s one of the reasons but I think we have to see the wider context than just to see the money around it.
“We signed six players who are under 23, which means a lot in terms of our planning. Normally, people like to see just one window, so I have to say it is the bigger picture because we started planning this squad a year ago in terms of consolidating the team and to try to get a better foundation.
“If you remember, in that period we renewed Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli a year ago with the intention to get that kind of base in the team. In a one-year period, we signed 10 players and seven of the 10 are under 23. We renewed seven players in this period as well, just in the first team. Five of the seven are under 23 as well.
“Why did we do that? Because we have a reason to try again to create a good foundation and then, one day, maybe we are going to sign one or two players only. But after that, it’s impossible to sign one or two players only because we have a lot to do.
“We have to balance the squad better. We have to recruit the players with the right characteristics and the right profile to make the squad better, more solid and much more consistent because last season we suffered with consistency.
“Now, I want to give Mikel Arteta and the board a much better squad.”
We know Arsenal fans are finding it hard to accept that the Gunners are bottom of the table without a point or even a goal scored, but the fact is that it is clear the club have decided on a long term strategy, and the fans have to come to terms with that.
I know a lot of fans want instant success but it is simply not that easy unless you’re playing on FIFA, so I know that I will get attacked by many readers, but we all just have to have faith, be patiient, and see how successful the plan ends up.
I guess it’s better than having no plan at all except to sack everybody…